The Marooned
by walkoverme
Summary: "There's a stagger in our walk, and there's a stutter in our name..." After Zim's rival disappears for four years, he takes a 'break' from trying to rule the world. Now Dib is back. but with a heavy trauma he is carrying on his shoulders. The alien invader makes it his new mission to piece together what happened the four years Dib was gone. This is a ZaDr fiction.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

Hello! Welcome to my first Invader Zim fiction! Let me tell you a little about what you're going to be reading!

This is mostly a hurt/comfort fiction, but it would be categorized as a romantic comedy. There will be a few moments of irony and different emotions will be shown throughout all of the characters.

This will be a ZaDr work of fiction. I am going to put a lot of work into this story. I will warn you that Zim and Dib will not fall for each other so easily. They will go through dislike, hate, annoyance, and worry before 'love' comes into the picture. Even though Gaz is not a major character in this fiction, she still plays a huge part in the story.

This fiction will be realistic, but it will also have the original Invader Zim ideas from start to finish.

Warnings are as follows; there will be intense sexual situations, intense violence, and things that some may find only slightly triggering. There will be mental outbursts with flashbacks. Only mentions of certain mental disorders will be shown.

I am putting a lot of effort into this fiction, so I hope you will enjoy!

 **This is rated T for TEEN. I expect you to act like young adults in the 'reviews'. If you cannot show me you are mature enough for the first chapter, then I will TAKE THIS DOWN and/or there will be NO 'arouse' scene.**

 **Again, T for Teen. If you aren't a teen, at least act like one.**

* * *

Chapter 1

Four years

It's been four years since it happened.

The disappearing.

The silence.

It started six years ago. The human would leave and come back for a week, or perhaps even a month, before he disappeared again. When he disappeared, he never appeared no earlier than two months later. Then, he would be back. Staring at the small green creature, chasing him, and even stalking him. Of course, this was just a regular thing the two boys did as enemies should. However, it seemed like this was becoming less of a ritual as the years went on.

Four years ago, Dib Membrane had disappeared without a trace. It was great at first, there was no Dib to stand in the way of Zim's evil schemes. He could finally take over the world and relax on some other planet in solitude. Then, the silence became more of a bother than having the big headed boy around to ruin his plans.

Zim found himself taking a "break" after his attempt to rule the world with a tomato and a hot glue gun. It was much more frightening than it sounds.

Four years and Zim was nowhere to be seen. Nobody knew the little green bug was hiding away in his base with his super "advanced" SIR unit and Mini Moose for company. It seemed like something he would want: _silence._ But he found himself wanting that rush of adrenaline once again.

He figured it was over, his rivalry with Dib. Dib was dead as far as he knew. His sister? He's seen her around, but every time he approached her and asked about "The Dib-stink" she would glare, but say nothing. One time he was able to get a word out of her, but it was only "Mind your own business." She had become less frightening as far as Zim knew, she wouldn't threaten anymore. With Gaz's new "person", he was not so sure about Dib.

He returned to school in the ninth grade, but didn't stay for long. He ended up skipping school, no longer wishing to know the human's defenses or the confusing "English" language. Biology wasn't in his interest. He found it disgusting, especially the birth of the human infant. He shivered just at the thought. He did learn that the mitochondria was the power house of the cell…whatever the mitochondria was.

Now, it was eleventh grade, or "Junior Year" as the humans call it. Last year it was Soft-MORE, and before that, Fresh-MAN. Zim didn't understand why now the grades had such strange names, but he went with it as a way to 'fit in'.

He wasn't any different. Of course he had grown a few inches, but he still wore the same uniform and had the same disguise. His personality was the same too, a bit depressed, but the same. Despite his short appearance, he had long legs and a tiny waist. It seemed all Irkins had a skinny appearance as long as they didn't eat so many snacks, and Tallests knew Zim didn't eat that much. Sure, snacks were great, but Zim didn't seem to have a want for them anymore. Besides, Zim had to look his best as a mighty Irkin invader.

Black boots clicked against the cold sidewalk, gloved hands in ripped grey pockets, antennae hidden under a wig of black hair and a hat. The body shivered, it was cold blooded, not accustomed to the cold, autumn air.

Purple eyes looked up at the two story school that seemed to be complete with a clock on top, like a university. It was Hi Skool, something Zim had read about a good bit since before he was a Freshman. He understood being 'social' was a way to appear normal, so he approached a student, most likely a 'cool kid' and said what came to mind; "I had a great summer vacation. Oh, yes. So full of skin burns and…and skinny dipping!"

…Needless to say that student did not respond, and simply walked away with a very TMI look on their face.

The alien raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding what was wrong with what he had said. He scanned the school's yard, seeing children of four ages conversing with friends and doing last minute 'over the break' homework. Now that was something Zim could easily say he disagreed with. These humans had to do work on a break? Did they not take the "English" class? A break is definitely a break.

Scanning the open yard, Zim could see a number of students he had recognized. The male students haven't really changed, except that they smelled a lot better than in the previous years. The female students are the ones that really changed. They had grown fat balls on their chests, some had tennis balls and others had basket balls. It was…interesting. There were also these things called 'tampons' which Zim never really got. Males seemed to be afraid of these 'tampons' and they had the same reaction to 'periods' which Zim did not understand since periods were transitions of classes.

Perhaps Zim could rule the world with these 'tampons'.

His eyes scanned over a certain human and he had to do a double take. This student, clad in black, set with a cape, and a purple haired girl walking beside him, looked so familiar to Zim. What got him the most was the black hair with the very familiar point.

Zim wouldn't forget that point. It was his old rival, no doubt.

This was it! Their game of hero vs villain could finally continue after four years!

Zim walked- no, _ran_ to the now tall human, and without a second thought called out; "Dib!"

The taller male and the purple haired female turned to look at Zim, one set of amber eyes meeting with purple, the other set seemed to look anywhere else.

With a smirk on his lips, and two hands on his hips, Zim eyed Dib with a challenging look in his eyes, the look that always set the human off. "I see you have returned to protect your planet, _filthy_ human! I can assure you that this time I will not be so- hey, hey! Where are you going!"

Dib had turned away and continued into the school building along with Gaz, who gave Zim a look. He wasn't sure what that look meant, but it wasn't good. Of course though, Zim hadn't spoken to Gaz since the last time he approached her, and she never gave him more than a glance.

"Human!" Zim called out. "Uh, very well! We will continue this… _another_ time!"

He never turned around.

A loud ring sounded the five minute mark for school to start, Zim marched to his first class, arms empty of the much needed school supplies he should have with him.

As he made his way through the halls, his mind kept going back to Dib. He hadn't seen him in so long and when he came back, he was freakishly tall and skinnier than before. His skin was still pasty, which Zim found out Dib had a Mexican DNA in him, and his hair was no longer shaved at the sides.

* * *

Lunch came quicker than ever before, perhaps because Zim slept through his morning classes. Yes, Irkins could sleep when they wanted to, and Zim found it more pleasing to sleep than to learn the distance formula from an adult human who had no idea what they were talking about. Hell, some just handed out packets and sat at their desks, doing this thing called 'texting' on their communication devices!

Lunch today was a moldy grilled cheese or pizza from summer school. At least they weren't getting served goop and mashed potatoes that moved. Zim had brought his own lunch. He found out he can keep his normal appearance by packing his own lunch with food he can actually eat. He usually just packed a sandwich from an Irkin wrapper and put it in a zip lock bag, along with a can of soda that he would open but never touch.

Zim sat in his normal place by the cafeteria doors. In case Dib wanted to act on a sudden attack, Zim could bolt and hide somewhere in the school. Besides, it gave Zim a nice view of Gaz's table. It was known as Gaz's table by the whole school. It used to be the Membrane table in elementary school, but because of Dib's disappearance, it was just Gaz's table.

Zim watched the two from his own table, alone as always, he stared at the two Membrane children who were anything but children anymore.

Gaz had grown; but she was only a few inches taller than Zim. Her hair going a bit passed her shoulders, her bangs covering her eyes when she looked down at her PSP. She too had the fat balls, but they were apples. Her outfits now seemed to be a bit more 'goth' with the color scheme being purple and black. Her face had metal rings hanging from her eyebrow and her nose, holes in her earlobes as well. Zim figured it was a sacrificial thing humans did, and he wanted _no_ part in it!

Her thumbs danced across the buttons of her game, tapping furiously as desperation to beat the game washed over her, only to be interrupted by a certain big head sitting next to her.

Zim eyed the older Membrane. Dib, his rival, now sported a metal sacrifice himself. A black stud in the center of his lower lip sparkled as it hit the light. His head was no longer shaved at the sides, and the point in his hair…well, that didn't seem to change. Despite never bathing when he was a kid, Dib looked very clean now. His outfit right now was bland. He sported a black long sleeve and black jeans which were a bit too big for him. It looked like that was all he had to wear at the moment. The boy, who used to talk nonstop, said nothing as he picked at his food. For once, it was the girl who spoke and she spoke in quiet words, as if not wanting to be heard.

Dib didn't smile in the slightest as his lips moved, forming quiet words. Gaz motioned over to Zim. Dib didn't even blink as he continued to pick and pull apart his food with his plastic fork. With his head down, hiding his face behind huge glasses, it was almost as if Dib didn't want to be noticed by anyone. _Anyone_ including the alien.

Zim caught this and couldn't help but think. Dib had always wanted to be noticed, especially by Zim. It was a way of saying "I'm here. I'll defeat you. Look at me! I'm being a hero!" But now it seemed that Dib had out grown it all. No…that wasn't what was showing on his face. In fact, Dib's face had changed. His skin wasn't pasty, it was pale. Those dark circles around his eyes weren't normal and his lips were chapped and broken open. He had sores on the side of his face he was picking at right now.

Zim couldn't help but stare in horror. Was he dying? What were those sores? Why wasn't he screaming across the cafeteria at the _almighty Zim_?

And then, the thought came to Zim's head;

 _Is this Dib?_

* * *

The locker room was full of many filthy Earth males and many filthy Earth smells. If it wasn't the heavy smell of sweat socks or the stink of sweaty male genitals, it was the _putrid_ smell of _filthy_ Earth feet.

And Tallest forbid there would be an Axe stink bomb! Zim could never breathe in the locker room.

And this whole thing with changing around other humans was foolish! Not only was it degrading, but if you were caught changing in the stalls, you were degraded further. Of course, Zim didn't care about that at all. He wasn't going to strip down to his underwear in front of all of these half-grown worm babies! Ridiculous!

Changing in the stalls made it harder to change out of his uniform and into his gym clothes, so he got into the habit of putting his gym clothes over his uniform for a short time…before the demand for physical exercise made his body heat increase to the point of passing out.

Coming out of the stall, Zim scanned the locker room briefly before returning to his own. Turning a corner, his eyes fell on someone new…at _his_ locker! Oh, well, it wasn't Zim's locker, it was the locker next to his that this person of annoyance was at.

His _rival_ was already dressed for gym class, slipping his gray t-shirt over his head and then taking a drink out of one of those drink holders that you can take with you. Travel cups? Travel pugs? Travel mugs? Yes! That's it! Travel mug. They are usually used for carrying hot beverages, such as cough-E or 'T'. The Dib set the travel mug down and getting ready to go out to the gym, Zim decided to open his mouth, yet again.

"Human!" He spoke, loudly, "I demand to know your reasoning for not attacking the _mighty Zim_ yet today! Don't you know it is going on 1 o'clock and- hey! Don't walk away from Zim!"

Nothing. Not even a frown. The Dib had simply turned and left the locker room without a word.

What was going on? Why was Dib-stink ignoring the mighty Zim?

Zim was going to find out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Alone with his thoughts, his mind began to wander. The light from the computer's monitor bounced off of his grotesque bug-like eyes as gloved fingers entwined. A hunched back and a stressed frown on his face, he couldn't help but get lost in his memories. It seemed this was turning into a common thing as of late. Sometimes memories are pleasant, other times not so much. Zim's were neither nor, but full of nonsense.

" _Jeez, Zim! You need to watch where you land!"_

" _Fool! I would have been_ fine _if your hippo of a head wasn't in the way!"_

" _My head's not big! …_ Or _a hippo! "_

Oh, that head certainly was a hippo! The slightest amusement shown on Zim's face.

" _Hey! That hurt!"_

" _Oh, uh. You okay?"_

"… _Yeah, I think it was just a scratch."_

" _Do you need first aid?"_

" _Nah, I think I'm just going to go home. I'll be back tomorrow, same time and all."_

 _"See ya. Oh, by the way, the security gnomes will be on."_

 _"Thanks but I think I'm going to sneak in through the side window."_

Sometimes their fights were just as casual as they were amusing. Sometimes though...

" _It's over, Dib!"_

" _Oh, no it isn't, Zim! I was up all night working on_ this! _It's a…it's a…"_

"… _You haven't given it a name yet?"_

" _I'm bad with names! But it works!"_

Sometimes their fights were just ridiculous. Sometimes there were slaps, and sometimes they just fought with words.

But, that was all in the past. That was…six years ago? They were children, and now they're almost adults. Zim wished he could say "time flies" but it seemed so long ago, endless. Somehow, he was able to memorize word for word what his rivalry with Earth's protector was. Now it seemed like those memories didn't even exist.

Dib didn't seem to have that passion for protecting Earth anymore, and Zim saw it. He saw how there was no longer a spark in the elder's eye, the excitement and thrill seemed to have long disappeared. The human's body language, which used to be on alert for even the smallest hint for anything, was now hunched and showed barely the faintest of movement. Even receiving materials from his locker seemed like a challenge.

A week of watching the human change in the locker room, and Zim noticed how skinny the boy had gotten. Sure, he was always a skinny child, but after comparing Dib's body to that of other human male's his height and age, Dib was definitely skinnier than the other disgusting high school population. Of course, it could be in Dib's genes as a reason why he was skinny. After all, his sister was a bit tiny herself.

But something in his PAK told Zim something was off, and he wasn't sure what it was although it bothered him every time he thought of the past.

It was the weekend and the green bug noted this was usually the time he and Dib would be fighting somewhere in town. Zim hadn't seen the human since Wednesday; the human had missed Thursday and Friday. Perhaps he was getting ready to disappear for another five months or so?

What was the reasoning for his disappearances? Is he plotting something? Is he trying to make Zim feel safe and comfortable, so he could catch the alien off guard?

Was he intimidated by Zim's _amazingness!?_

Probably.

Something else had crawled it's way into Zim's mind as well. It had been a while since his leaders had contacted him. Or…he had contacted them. They usually were never the ones to contact Zim. Perhaps they were busy doing Tallest stuff, like blowing up moons, or maybe they just trusted Zim to take over the Earth. Either way, Zim wasn't sure what the conversation would be like, seeing as how he hasn't really done anything except learn the human's algebra multiplication and division.

" _Hey! Hey! My Tallest! I learned what X equals!"_

 _When_ would he ever use that? Even as a human, what need would there be to solve an alphabetical number with little to no meaning? More importantly, why did the teachers care if you learned this stuff or not? Further more, some of the teachers didn't even teach. Zim found himself going through classes not learning much of anything. On his planet, if you were forced to go to classes, you were expected to learn by being taught by a higher up.

He could of course tell the Tallest about the supreme leader of America, 'Brick O-llama' and how most of the American minions dishonor him, even though they apparently 'voted' to make him _supreme leader_ of America. How can someone hate their 'voted' leader? It just didn't make sense. It seemed the humans were dumber than the alien had originally thought. If voted leaders were allowed on Irk, they would most certainly be respected!

But now there is this evil being 'Donald Duck' who is very much hated in different parts of the planet, but the 'red-necks' in America seem to like him. Zim has never seen anyone walk around with a neck the color of red. Of course, the invader wanted to meet this evil 'Donald Duck' and they could _rule_ the world with guns and illegal LGBT! _Oh,_ how exciting.

…What even _is_ LGBT?

Laughing Goats Bring Tea.

Yes. He shall _rule the world_ with laughing goats! Zim shall _drown_ his enemies in hot, boiling tea! _Boiling!_

The alien slipped off of his chair, standing tall as soon as the foot of his boots met with the cold base floor. Something was going to have to be done about this planet, Zim wasn't sure how much longer he could stay on this miserable dirt world full of acidic liquid. Zim had to give props to the horrid planet though, the planet itself seems to have multiple defenses.

 _Ting ting clack tck ting_

 _CRASH_

 _Ting ting ting ting ting_

A sigh left the extraterrestrial's mouth, hearing the tapping of metal on metal approach him from behind. The robot with the big blue eyes extended an arm out, holding a glass of thick, lumpy, green…whatever it was. You might not think so, but this was a very special robot.

The alien looked at the android, and then the glass, not knowing what filled the cup Zim couldn't help but give the beverage a very suspicious eye. It was bubbling and…moving? Was it a type of food you get at the school cafeteria? The thought disgusted Zim. How humans managed to choke down the moldy macaroni and cheese was beyond Zim's _brilliant_ intelligence.

The android smiled and proudly exclaimed; "I made vegetable juice!"

"Hm?" _Vegetable juice?_ Where does the juice come from?

"It's healthy!" The robot was so excited, he seemed to stand on nonexistent toes.

"Well, if it is 'healthy' then it certainly can't be good!"

That of course shown to make the android upset as a sob slipped from it, tears formed in the robot's glowing blue eyes, and the arm that was helping to hold the special juice fell a bit. The other hand had risen to wipe away the tears that were now falling on the floor. He was so proud of himself and his master showed it signs of dislike.

Zim's frown fell and a look of regret replaced it. "Eugh… _fine!_ I will _try_ it!" snatching the glass of _horrid_ liquid from the metal claws. The alien brought the glass to his face and sniffed at it.

Eugh! It was _horrible!_ Zim couldn't help his face scrunch in disgust and the gag emitting from his throat. His robot stood grinning, awaiting his master's response with it's glowing blue eyes. Zim could only fake a very crooked smile and give the android a very forced, very nervous laugh before downing the whole cup in one swig, as if he was taking some sort of bad tasting medicine.

Needless to say, that was a terrible mistake. One of Zim's eyes grew bigger than the other, his tongue hung out of his mouth in complete and utter disgust. A gloved hand raised to cover his mouth as vomit worked its way up Zim's throat which took all he could to simple choke it down as his face grew pale. He looked at the still smiling GIR, and managed to hack out a "It's great." Though, he regretted the action of trying the juice, he did manage to earn a high pitched "Yayy!" from the android and a sprint to 'the bucket' to empty out his squeedlyspooch. Such a horrible drink did not deserve to take residence in Zim's squeedlyspooch anyway.

Suddenly very distracted with more important things at hand, GIR then began bouncing on his head and seemed to have attached himself to the computer. The spinning room then appeared on the computer's monitor. Lifting his head out of the bucket before wiping his mouth, Zim eyed the screen. The images on the screen seemed to bounced and spin. They went upside down, left and right, sideways and backways. Visions of the base's pipes, the green tubes used for…stuff, the magenta and purple ceiling and wall were all on this huge screen.

Zim raised an eyebrow at the screen and then turned his head towards GIR, who was flopping around like a fish out of water at this point but seemed to be enjoying himself. Zim then turned back to the monitor, watching as the spinning room went 'round and 'round.

He scratched his butt.

And it hit him like a bucket of water " _I'm_ a _genius_!"

Zim ran over to GIR, sitting the robot in the standing position and then reaching towards it's head. High pitched squealing came from the bot which could have been mistaken for agony, but really was a squeal of energy as GIR was still attempting to flop on the floor, or do a handstand. It was extremely bothersome for his master, who didn't understand why it always moved when he wanted it to hold still, and hold still when he wanted it to move. Zim was thankful the Tallest trusted him with such advanced technology, if only he would have known how manual it was he probably would have asked for directions.

"Ergh…GIR, hold still!" He had to act upon his _amazing_ idea before he forgot it!

"I feel funny!"

"Hold still, _GIR_!" Unable to keep GIR in the standing position, Zim had to put it under his arm in order to open it's head and retrieve the android's memory chip. Once retrieved, Zim tossed GIR aside and made his way to the computer's board. A violet slot opened up for Zim to place the chip. Once placed, the slot closed and images of GIR's past memories appeared on the screen. The videos being seen from GIR's very own eyes.

All the way from when he was first put together from scraps of metal and loose paperclips to his first SuckMunkey, all of GIR's memories on one big screen…and several smaller screens. But the big screen was important!…because it was big of course!

"Let's examine your memories from say…six years ago." Once the nearest purple button was pressed, the memory chip rewound through days, weeks, months, _years_ worth of precious memories.

After sucking his foot, the bot made his way beside Zim to 'watch TV'. There were images of GIR's pig, GIR's favorite snacks, _Zim's snacks_ to which Zim gave GIR a look and the bot grinned back. Then there was a loud "Aha!" as Dib's face covered the monitor.

This got Zim's attention. "Stop!" he commanded "Rewind to hour 17 at 31 minutes and 16.5 seconds!"

The computer obeyed.

 _Dib's face filled the screen again. Dib's hands were off screen but his arms were out as if giving the monitor a hug, his thumb being seen pressed on the screen. He obviously was messing with GIR in some way. The bot's giggles could be heard in the video, he seemed to either be tickled or thought they were playing a game._

" _What's this do?" he asked, just as the angry invader pushed the human's head out of the way of GIR's vision yelling;_

" _Don't touch my advanced SIR unit with your horrible smelling human_ fingers _!"_

" _Hey! Don't push!"_

" _Don't tell me what not to do! I am_ Zim! _"_

 _ZAP_

 _A bright flash of red emitted the left side of the screen, and what was seem next was Dib flying from the left side of the screen all the way off the right side, letting out a yell of surprise. What was seen next was Zim running from that same side, stopping in the center of the screen, fists in the air as he declared, "Victory for Zim!" and GIR let out a soft, but pitched "Whoo!" as the sight of baked beans were vacuumed into the bottom portion of the screen._

 _Another bright red light emitted from Dib's side of the screen. It didn't take Zim long to notice as he let out a holler, "Mm? Mm- nooo!" The little alien was hit with the same laser, only he simply fell over with only his legs showing on the screen, one twitched a few times._

 _Dib immediately ran over to Zim and stood on the invader's wrists, aiming a laser gun at Zim's face._

" _Now what,_ Zim _? I have you_ trapped _like a spider in a web! Wait…"_

 _Zim wrapped his legs around Dib, letting out a grunt as he used all of his strength to throw the human over his face and off of the screen, emitting a loud crash and the sound of a few heavy items falling and scattering across the floor. "Ah! Hold on! I wasn't ready!"_

 _Looking relived, the Irken invader stood, brushing himself off and then reaching towards his giggling SIR unit. "Come on, GIR, we have a mess to clean up."_

" _Hey, wait!" the human shouted at them, "I'm not finished yet!" were the last few words said before the computer's screen produced static and went black._

Silence.

The invader shook his head; he did not find what he was looking for. "Perhaps another year forward." He suggested to himself, pushing a similar looking button to the one before but on the other side of the ginormous keyboard and the computer fast forward to a year later.

 _The cold blooded extraterrestrial had taken GIR out on a walk in the cold winter snow, unable to stand it's constant screaming any longer. The green body shivered, he was not prepared for this cold weather and had left the base in just his uniform and a bomber. The robot in the green doggy suit stopped at a fire hydrant to smell it. It didn't seem bothered by the cold, but Zim was beginning to regret taking the human's warm clothing for granted. He definitely wanted a coat right now._

" _Th-this miserable Earth weather…i-it has no mercy."_

 _Zipper-like teeth chattered, bony knees shook, and skinny arms hugged the body they were connected to in desperation to warm it. The green face had a light pink dust from the cold air hitting against it. Even the invader's six toes felt frost bitten! The thought of his toes being cold made his temper rise. "_ _I_ hate _it! I hope to never hear of any more crystallized water for the rest of the century!"_

 _Not only did the cold annoy him, but_ GIR _wanted to sniff_ every _nook of the hydrant. Refusing to stand out in this frozen acid, Zim let out a heavy sigh and a "Come on. GIR". GIR, however, wasn't going to move for anything and simply flopped on the ground, forcing his master to pull him by the leash. Another annoyance._

 _He didn't get far before something cold met the back of his head, causing Zim to fall face down on the forbidding, icy sidewalk. There was a sickening crack, but it was only from the ice cracking under Zim's head. The bot jumped, legs wiggling in the air, landed, and slipped on the ice doing a flip in mid air._

 _There was that same_ annoying _laugh along with the beep beeping sounds of a video game being played and the harsh click clicking of buttons being frantically pressed._

 _GIR's vision stopped on Dib who was now laughing and pointing at Zim. He was with his sister who was decked in a scarf, hat, mittens, and earmuffs. The earmuffs were most likely to block out her brother's annoying voice. Dib only had a sweatshirt on, but he didn't seem bothered by the freezing weather like Zim was._

" _What's the matter, Zim?" the human mocked, "Too cold for your horrible, mutant body? Bet you wish you were warm blooded, huh?"_

" _Mmmmmmnn!"_

 _The human put a hand to his ear, "What's that? I couldn't hear you! Maybe if you had a nose your face wouldn't get stuck to the ice!"_

" _Mm!"_

Zim refused to watch anymore of the humiliating display, impatience was nearing its ugly head and the Irken was getting cranky. He didn't want to sit and watch videos all night! He had stuff he had to do! Like…clean the hair dryers!

He let out an annoyed groan. There _had_ to be something hidden in one of these videos. Zim could work with even the smallest of evidence, but first he had to _find_ evidence! Perhaps he was going to far into this. Perhaps the evidence is in one of the more recent videos, but even the most recent ones were still dated to a while back. Maybe the evidence comes before Dib's six long disappearance streak. Another button was pushed and the memories fast forward two years later.

 _The same image of the two rivals in Zim's base was shown, except they were older. Zim's appearance hadn't changed that much, except for the curve in his waist and slight muscle on his build. His stand had become straighter, but everything else was about the same._

 _Dib, however, had changed a bit more than Zim. He was now wearing a tan colored shirt, the face on his shirt was angry. The black jeans he had kept since he was 11 were torn at one knee and torn at his thigh, his boots worn down from chasing Zim. In fact, they were falling apart, being pulled together with some stitched on silver duct tape._

 _He also had an outbreak of acne on the side of his face, which he kept scratching at whenever he got the chance._

 _It was the same laser gun battle with Dib flying off of the screen, and Zim claiming victory. It seems some things never changed. Dib even took his place standing on Zim's wrists, only now his legs were a bit longer, but that same gun which was being held by pasty fingers was pointed in the alien's face. A victorious smirk shown on Dib's face. "This seems to happen a lot, huh Zim?"_

 _"Fool!" the short tempered alien spat, "You're forgetting one thing, Dib!"_

 _The look of triumph on the human's face fell as confusion replaced it. "Huh?" Forgot? What had he forgotten?_

 _The Irkin smirked, "This!" in no time at all Zim's legs wrapped around the taller man's waist and attempting to toss him aside just as he did a some number of years ago. However, the human proved too much, as he didn't budge for the alien. In fact, it was as if Zim wasn't even trying. Letting out a struggled grunt, Zim tried again before giving up. As Dib looked down at the smaller one, clearly not amused or impressed. Not knowing what to do, Zim just gave him a nervous smile._

 _"Wow." Dib replied, "You just made it awkward."_

 _"Human! How was I supposed to know you weighed that of a moose!?"_

 _Something snapped. It was as if Zim had taken a dry branch and broke it in half. The look in Dib's eyes changed, and he acted with it. "You know what? Forget it!" The human hit the alien's legs with the gun, causing them to fall as he backed off of the alien. Zim sat up, raising an eyebrow. Why wasn't the human firing a laser through Zim's face skeletal? That was the fun part! "I'm going home. We can finish this some other time." Dib said as he collected his things and turned to go home._

 _"Eh? Uh, okay. Curse you then."_

 _Without looking back, the human raised a hand in reply before leaving the base completely. At this time, it was unusual for Dib to get angry and simply quit a battle with Zim. It was unusual for Dib to walk away without saying some witty comeback, but Zim didn't notice this at the time. He figured the pathetic Dib human was figuring out he could never win against the mighty Zim._

Zim stopped the memory. This was filmed just a few days before Dib went missing, meaning there had to be some sort of hint somewhere on the screen. Bug-like eyes scanned the huge computer screen, looking for anything that would be a hint to the disappearances. It should be easy, except Zim knew nothing of what he was looking for. A gloved finger tapped a button and the memory went back to the fight, playing frame by frame.

It wasn't until Dib raised the laser gun to Zim's head that Zim caught something. Going from slouching in his chair to springing forward on his feet, he pushed the pause button. Gloved fingers tapped on the keyboard, the image zooming in on the human's hand.

" _What are those?"_

Three red dots were seen visibly on the human's wrist. The red dots weren't anything serious to the looks of them; they looked like birthmarks, but...Zim had never seen any birth marks anywhere on the human, especially on his wrists. Perhaps it was different when he was actually looking for something on the human.

By the way, what even _are_ birth marks?

 _Birth marks._

Was Dib carrying human smeets on his wrists? Would these birth marks hatch into something horrible!?

It could also be an allergic reaction. Humans were always allergic to something, including their own food!

Zim knew that certain jewelry contained a metal called 'nickel' and that some humans were allergic to that metal. Perhaps that was what it was, Dib seemed to be allergic to everything as well.

Zim wanted to laugh. Humans were so _inferior_! How they were even alive was beyond Zim. There seemed to be so many things that could affect a human's health, such as; allergens, asthma, things that were not known to other species. How could an air way just fail after less than a mile of running? And then the "die-a-beasties" which Zim had no knowledge of, but the stinky neighbors across the street possessed the "die-a-beasties". The only reason Zim could remember the name was because the human beasts often died from them. "Die-its" too.

But the Dib! Zim knew the human was inferior, but to the point of being allergic to a bit of metal was just ridiculous! Everything was made of metal on his planet so if you had an allergy to it you were screwed.

Unless they were battle marks.

That's it! The red dots were battle marks! The Dib must have had a fight with something. Something, truly evil! What could he have fought? A dragon perhaps! Dib got into a fight with a dragon! No, that wasn't it. Dragons wouldn't leave such small marks. Perhaps the thing he had gotten into a fight with was kidnapping the human and squeezing his blood candies out to feed their young! Oh, the _horror!_

"I'll be back GIR." Zim marched to the transportation tube and was sucked up in a matter of seconds, calling down to the robot, "Don't forget to feed Nick!"

GIR watched his master disappear to the house, then turned his head to look at Nick who was floating upside down in the capsule, his shirt and shorts had long stopped fitting him and his now tiny shoes floated behind the unmoving body. Seeing that Nick didn't need to be fed, GIR picked up the remote and turned on The Angry Monkey Show.

* * *

Erratic fist banging on the front door was the last thing Gaz wanted to hear as she was busy playing with the new Oculus Rift system she had gotten for her birthday last week, and she did _not_ want to stop what she was doing to go answer the door for what probably were the town's happy church moms who wore too much make up talking about if she had accepted Jesus Christ as her lord and savior. Didn't they understand Lucifer had long taken over Gaz's body at birth?

But the banging wouldn't _cease._ In fact, it just seemed to get louder and louder! Of course this made a bad turn to Gaz's patience, not to mention her concentration on the game. She tried to put her headphones on to block out the noise and it worked for a moment until the banging got louder and louder. It was distracting as hell and she no longer able to focus on the game without the horrible banging on wood in the background.

Oh, that was the last straw. If the banging wasn't going to stop, Gaz would make it stop. Ripping off her headphones and her $2,000 Oculus Rift, she stomped her way over to the front door and swung it open. Her eyes wide and dark behind her bangs, biting her lip until she was drawing blood as her eye twitched.

She wasn't surprised seeing the still-short green 'human' standing tall with all his dignity with a fist close to his chest. She didn't sigh, and her look of oncoming death wiped from her face, her hair shaping back to normal.

"What do you want?" she asked as if knowing the reason, or just not caring.

The unwanted intruder raised an eyebrow, demanding "I am _here_ for the Dib!"

"Go away." The young sibling replied in a very annoyed very bored tone. She didn't want to deal with Dib's stupid friend right now. She had a game to finish and she forgot to put it on pause, so she was probably already dead. The thought making her all the more annoyed especially since Zim was _not_ worth having to restart the game all over again.

Of course though, Zim was not going to leave so easily. He was here on a mission. "Perhaps you do not understand, _filthy_ human with hair of purple. I am _here_ for-!"

"Yeah," she cut him off in her usual monotone, "I heard you. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go finish my game."

Even though she tried to make it as obvious to Zim as she could that his presence was not wanted, Zim put his foot between the door and the door jamb to keep her from closing and locking the door. It was cold and he had just walked a block when he could be sitting on his couch being lazy. Gaz raised her eyes and gave the darkest of looks to the stubborn alien who soon realized he better say something or he was going to go home with a potted plant broken over his head.

"Uh, Ehh…what about…" he tried to think of what they were exactly "the, uh… _battle_ marks?"

Silence.

"Battle marks?" Gaz asked, clueless.

"The uh...red squares on the Dib's hand and arm connector." Zim explained.

It was as if Zim had take a dry stick and broke it in half as something snapped inside the horrible sister. Zim didn't even get a chance to react before she had swept an old faded baseball bat into his ankles. As Zim hit the ground, the door slammed shut and Gaz was gone.

"Eugh…" Zim stood, fixing his crooked wig. "Perhaps I had underestimated the sensitivity of the _Dib sister._ It seems I will have to find some other way in receiving information on the _horrible_ stink beast."

A finger was raised to scratch at the aliens chin as he thought. There were so many different ways he could do this. He could kidnap the human and perform _horrible_ experiments on his giant head to get answers. He could soak him in dooki. The stench would surely be enough to make the human confess to whatever he was hiding.

Eh. He would have to go back to his base and plan out what he was going to do. Whatever his plan, it was going to be horrible.

Prepared as he was, Zim turned on his heel and began his march to victory, a victory which would come with no onstacles! Not even that rock in the middle of the walkway could cause Zim to stumble and fall...except the tiny dog with the big ears and shaking body that Zim had then tripped over letting out a soft "Oof!" as he fell flat on his face.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 _Sometimes we can't understand why someone is the way they are. There is a lot of psychology involved in a person's personality. We can't always understand the person's reasoning of doing things, or why they choose to be so stubborn. We can only live in a society full of differences and disagreement. Isn't that what keeps life exciting?_

Health class wasn't one of Zim's favorites. He never had this problem with 'difference' or 'disagreement' on his planet. Everyone was programmed to be the same person with same mentalities. The only differences between them were height and facial features, sometimes eye color but that was only on rare occasions. Everyone strived to claim the same goal- domination and impressing their leaders. They didn't have any worries or doubts. It wasn't in their programming.

Even though Health wasn't Zim's favorite subject, it certainly proved to be very useful in understanding the enemy. Unlike biology, health class went into the mentalities of the humans.

He also stole a tampon from a girl's purse and found out what they were for. He didn't want any part of them for his world domination.

The school day seemed to drag on. Math and P.E. were the only classes he had with the Dib human and he had Science with Gaz, who acted like Zim wasn't her partner for today's lesson and did everything on her own. If Zim were to touch anything on the lab's counter, his hand was smacked away. He soon learned his lesson when instead of a slap, his fingers were crushed under a heavy textbook.

The fun started in P.E.

Zim had become accustomed to wearing his gym clothes without his uniform. Although he still wished he could wear the uniform under his gym clothes, he remained comfortable with his gloves and boots. He got away with wearing the boots because he told his gym teacher his parents didn't have money for sneakers.

Heading towards his locker, he spotted Dib having his leg lifted to slip his shoes on the sitting bench. Making sure Dib wouldn't notice him, the invader kept his eyes glued to his own locker as he tossed everything in carelessly, shutting and closing the lock to it. By now, Dib had his back facing him and was walking out to the gym area.

Zim followed Dib out to the gym with the rest of the stinky Earth teens and took his spot on the gym floor. He did his stretches like a civilized being, and not 'accidentally' punching or kicking the teens next to him just because he wanted to hear their howls of pain. High school was very boring, you see.

The gym teacher; old, gray hair, handlebar mustache, huge round belly, stood at the front of the gym blowing into that annoying high pitched whistle of his. Zim hated that whistle. No one knew the gym teacher's name, but they knew he had a criminal record of some sort. He also had a reputation of waiting until someone passed out from an asthma attack to send them to the nurse. He was an asshole of a human. Zim didn't like him.

"Alright," the gym teacher announced loudly, "We're going to play dodgeball-" At that exact moment, all of the male students in the room became yelling incoherently. The only words Zim managed to hear were "dodgeball" and a deep voice yelling "Jimmy!", he himself did not appreciate the game seeing as how he always managed to be used as a target by the other students. "Pick your teams" the gym beast finished, and as soon as he did, it was a frenzy of picking best friends and fighting over the best players.

Zim knew the drill by now but it still was a lot for his PAK to process. Knowing he would not have someone run up to him yelling his name or exclaim how excited they were to have Zim on their team, he waited for the two teams to be picked so he could be put on a team.

The students seemed to quiet down and they were split in two groups. Zim's eyes scanned both teams. The team with the least amount of players would be Zim's team. When he realized what team he would be on, he noticed one of the students was missing.

Zim turned his head and found Dib standing three feet away. The human's stare wasn't on Zim, but on the smaller team.

" _So,"_ he thought to himself _"The Dib human will be on the same team as Zim."_

As if knowing what was going to happen, the team grimaced.

As the whistle was blown, the game began and the students were running to the line to grab a dodgeball. Zim called these students the 'sacrifices' since they were usually the first ones to be hit. Already there were six students who were out. Four on Zim's team, two on the enemy's.

As the balls flew by Zim left and right, he didn't have any time to think. Doing what he did best, Zim let out his famous battle cry and ran to the back corner of his side. He knew the best place was far away from the line and in a place no one really looked. The human's would look everywhere else but the corners because of their lack of focused attention.

No, this wasn't Zim running and hiding. He was waiting until all the other 'teammates' have fallen before he, the greatest player, would come out and catch the other team by surprise, thus winning the battle of the dodgeballs and bringing his team to victory.

As players were 'killed off' one by one, Zim became more and more excited for when he would make his big appearance. Some players avoided the flying balls as best they could, but ended up getting hit anyway. Some were going straight in. Grabbing and throwing the hard red gym balls, causing some students to fall or even get bumps on their heads. Some students were rewarded back in when another would catch a ball. Zim didn't understand this whole concept. It didn't seem to train human pigs well enough for an alien invasion.

Eventually, there were two more players remaining in the game. Zim and the weight lifter, Torque.

Decked in a white tee shirt, sporty white Adidas gym shorts, and a pair of white sneakers, Torque was a walking, talking machine built to do only one thing- _destroy_!

Pathetic. Even Zim could defeat this beast of meat and muscle, and he planned to.

Zim came out of the corner, a sharp toothed grin had planted itself on his face, and he was prepared for battle.

Torque didn't seem to be bothered by the grin, he simply spun the rubber ball on his finger, "Are we doing this or what?" he asked.

"Oh, we are certainly 'doing this'." He wiggled his fingered evilly. Again, Torque didn't seem bothered by it. "Do not go easy on Zim! Zim has been hit with only the most _pain inducing_ boulders in Invader training, and I can _certainly_ handle the mere weak throws of your red death balls of… _death_!"

"Whatever."

And that started it. The dodgeball war and begun. Torque was first to throw the one he was previously spinning, Zim had dodged it easily and grabbed another and thrown it at Torque with a grunt.

Torque was easily able to move out of the way of the flying ball and grab another one by his foot. Zim dodged it by sharply arching his back, having to catch himself on his toes to keep from losing his balance. As another ball was thrown at Zim's boot, Zim jumped to dodge it while at the same time doing an underthrow at the weight lifter. The ball bounced off of the floor in front of Torque's feet and he was able to catch it easily as it bounced back up.

By now the students who were seated now watched in awe with jaws dropped as the rubber balls flew from left and right. Some of the students had ice packs held to their heads, or bandaids on arms and legs. One student had lost a tooth and was holding a bloody paper towel in their mouth, but they seemed more interested in the dodgeball fight between Torque and the weird green kid.

As balls flew at Zim in a streak, Zim's eyes had now widened when he realized he didn't have time to react at all. Desperate times call for desperate measures and Zim was now inhumanely distorting his body to dodge these rubber balls.

He ducked out of the way of one, squatting in an animal-like position, then quickly moved his head out of the way of another one. Zim then stood, stretching his legs over a ball aimed at his feet and then bending backwards, arching his whole body in an upside U, grabbing onto his ankles to avoid yet another red ball of death. As another ball went to hit Zim in the face, Zim had let go of his ankles, his legs stretching upwards and then touching the floor so Zim was now standing straight and tall with a hand on his hip as if he had somehow won by dodging all of the hits.

He was surprised when another ball was already heading his way at a fast speed. No time to think or react, Zim decided to contort his body once more, bending backwards at his hips.

It all seemed to go in slow motion at this, as the red ball gently grazed the hair piece of Zim's wig. While this was going on, Zim's eyes had widened, knowing just how close he was to getting hit. Zim stood on one leg, eyeing Torque with only the most competitive look. A look that said "Is that all you have?", hearing the rubber ball bounce off of the wall, he claimed himself as victorious.

What Zim had missed, was that Torque still had one more ball and it was flying towards Zim's face faster than the speed of light, and Zim definitely had no time to react. His eyes widened only momentarily before he flinched away, arms up to block his face from the horrible impact that would surely send the alien flying into the back wall.

However, nothing hit him.

Zim waited to hear the ball collide with the wall, or perhaps he had given the speed of the dodgeball too much credit. Slowly his eyes opened and he wasn't prepared for what he saw.

In front of him was the teen with the pointy hair and the body that seemed to drown in their gym shirt. They stood tall, holding a red dodgeball with both hands with feet firmly placed shoulder length apart. All of the students, even Torque, stopped and stared. They knew what happened.

Dib Membrane had _helped_ his arch nemesis.

* * *

" _What_ was _that?"_ Zim found himself thinking. Concentration proved useless and he would gladly accept the failing grade, he didn't study anyway.

The question rang in Zim's mind repeatedly like a million tiny bells as he tried to think of some reasoning behind what he saw. Images of the gymnasium and Dib's body standing in front of his own flashed through his mind. The back of Dib's head and the dodgeball in his hands. Zim groaned quietly, grabbing his head and putting it down momentarily on his desk.

He peeked an eye at Dib who was sitting in the front row on his left, right next to the large windows. Zim was in the front row on his right. Some things never change. Zim was assigned the front row because he had an issue screaming every time the air vent went on. Somehow putting him in the front row helped with that. Perhaps because he wasn't as close to it so the vent wasn't exactly as loud as it was before.

Dib hunched over his desk, taking his time to answer each question on the test. The older teen raised a hand to scratch at the sores on the side of his face, which were an angry red from irritation. His bony hand scritched his pencil back and forth on the test paper.

Zim tapped his pencil on his desk. His teacher had told him countless times about tapping his pencil but right now he couldn't help but do it as his mind tried to work around the reasoning for Dib's actions or if what he saw was real. Sometimes PAKs malfunctioned and made Irkens see things that aren't necessarily there. On Earth it was called hallucinating, but they used a different word for it on Irk.

But no. Zim never had issues with hallucinations. The only time a PAK was to malfunction in such a way was when there was too much going on at once for the Irken and they either saw, heard, or smelled something that wasn't there. Zim was calm, there wasn't really anything to make him stress so much into malfunctioning.

Zim looked back at his paper, figuring he would never get it started. About to crumble up the test, a sudden bang made him jump in his seat. The bang sounded like a textbook hitting the floor and then the sound of a wooden pencil being dropped. One of the girls in the classroom screamed, and someone else whispered "oh my gosh". Zim looked to his left and was unsure how to react.

The human, Dib, was laying face down on his desk, arms dangling at his sides, fingers uncurled having also dropped his pencil on the floor. A spot of blood could be seen on the human's test paper and it seemed to grow only slightly.

Zim could only stare in horror as the other students started whispering to each other. No one, only Zim, realized the body didn't move in even the slightest.

Almost as if it wasn't breathing.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The sound of sniffling noses and gross hacking coughs filled the quietness of the nurse's office. The nurse herself had her voice small and soft speaking into the phone as she filled out an injury report on a student.

When Gaz heard her brother had passed out, she wasted no time in leaving her class with her tote bag, completely ignoring the commands of her angry Geometry teacher to sit down. She would take the detention. After all, wasn't this an emergency? More so; a family emergency?

She rounded the corner and turned herself into the nurse's office. The first thing she saw was one of the rejects sitting in the waiting chair with bruises all over his face and his finger bent the wrong way, she then noticed her brother laying on one of the beds with eyes closed holding a bloody paper towel to his nose.

The nurse hung up the phone after acknowledging Gaz's presence in the health room. "Hello Gaz!" she greeted in that overly cheery voice that made Gaz want to gag. "You must be worried about your brother, huh?"

"Not hardly." She replied and stepped up to the bed her brother laid on. The younger sibling reached into her tote. "Look, I have that weird peanut butter or your fish snacks. What do you want?"

Silence.

"You don't have a choice." The younger told him, frowning all the while. Her brother could be stubborn and it got annoying quickly, mostly because Gaz just didn't have the patience for it. She dealt with this every day. "So pick."

An audible groan could be heard from the young man. He sat up with the paper towel on his nose. "PB2" he mumbled to which Gaz sighed in frustration. She would have responded the same way to the canned fish. The PB2 that Dib had chosen was powdered peanut butter. It had lower calories and lower fat than regular peanut butter. Gaz thought it tasted horrible but if it was something Dib would eat, she wouldn't complain. Besides, it was full of protein and that was something her brother needed.

Gaz made the peanut butter in a small paper cup to which Dib ate almost too eagerly with his finger. His sister watched as the weird mixture was devoured within a few seconds and licked off of trembling lips. Her own stomach growled.

The sound of heavy shoes against the cold, hard floor could be heard entering the nurse's office. A deep voice could be followed by a sigh. "Not this again, Dib."

"Dad." Came the weak response.

The nurse smiled pleasantly at the well renowned scientist. "It's nice to see you again, Professor Membrane."

"Ah, the pleasure is always mine." He replied. "Now, what's this I hear about Dibson passing out?"

"Oh!" The nurse took out a thick notebook, filled with all sorts of different medical files but all for the same person. It had to be at least a couple inches thick with paper. "Yes. His oxygen levels were down to 38%. But also, his blood pressure levels were pretty low and as was his vitamin D levels."

"I'm sorry, that is my mistake. He is on new medicine and I forgot to give you his new paperwork."

"Oh, well that's fine! I understand how busy you are, professor. I understand you're super close to finding a cure to cancer. I think that's wonderful! You know, my mother had breast cancer-"

The conversation went upon deaf ears. Gaz looked at her brother, who was scraping the paper cup clean of even the smallest bit of food with his finger, then at her dad who simply chatted away with the school nurse about his latest discoveries. She sighed, picking up her tote bag "I'll be back." She told her brother and then leaving the office without another word.

* * *

School.

Full of kids who think they know everything in the world. Yet they look over the things that matter the most. Things that are right under their noses in plain sight. Perhaps they are too happy to understand, or too happy that they actually don't want to understand. It's almost as if everyone just wanted to exist without being seen, yet they all talked about changing the world so frequently.

It was easy to want the whole world destroyed. Gaz felt it too much. Sometimes, she imagined everyone in the world with guns, shooting each other. Killing the superstars and children. Wiping out all existence and then ending it all in suicide. Gaz's mind was a dark place, or perhaps she was just…disappointed.

As the bell rang and students filled the halls, Gaz had pulled the folder closer to herself to avoid anyone from seeing who exactly the folder belong too. The alien 'warning' stickers were more than enough to give that away however.

At that moment, all Gaz could see were teens in camouflage, all holding guns that should belong in the military and wearing their helmets. The teens ran ramped, shooting as many of each other as they could. Hands covered in blood, helmets flying off as the lockers around her exploded. Gaz swore she could feel the painful shards being stuck in her skin.

Doctors didn't understand the reasoning for these visions. Gaz figured it was a result from the intense hate she felt towards the world. She wasn't scared of them though, even if she could feel pain from them.

She walked through the battlefield, holding the folder that belonged to her brother with old alien 'warning' stickers all over it. She stepped over some barbed wire and a cracked grenade. The folder over filled with the work Dib will miss for the rest of the day, including his homework. Sometimes she felt like the government really did want teens to be stressed and depressed.

The battlefield began fading away and the image of the high school hallway came back into view. The sounds of gunshots, exploding grenades, and screaming faded out being replaced with laughter and the closing of locker doors.

It didn't take more than a second to process what she saw as she rounded a corner. There was Zim, holding what looked to be a fake hall pass with a forged signature. He stood just outside the nurse's office, the door had been closed after Gaz left. Probably giving Dib and the rejects some privacy that Zim was about to invade with the turn of a knob.

"Stop!" she called out, making the alien jump a bit in surprise.

He watched her get closer with a very confused, annoyed look planted on his face. He wasn't expecting her to get so close to where their toes were touching, or to where he could feel her breath against his face. She was small, just an inch smaller than Zim, but she was more than terrifying. She was right in Zim's face and looked as if Zim had made a comment about her gaming skills.

"Stay away from my brother." She demanded.

"Eh?"

"Stay. Away."

"Your pathetic attempt to scare Zim is failing miserably! Besides, I was- uh…" He used the first thought that came to his mind, using both fingers to point to his head. "I have the brain aches!"

"No. I know what you're doing. I suggest you stay away if you know what's good for you."

Still, even after the threat that was made, Zim crossed his arms and proceeded to be his stubborn self. However, before he could get a word out, the nurse's door opened and there stood the person of conversation looking very…out of it.

Zim looked up at the human, and the human looked away. The invader blinked, completely surprised by Dib's simple action.

Gaz wasn't happy with the situation in the slightest, but there really wasn't anything that she could do. She couldn't tell Dib to go back in the room, she knew he wouldn't listen. She couldn't tell Zim to scram either. Gaz could only hope the worst wouldn't happen.

"Human!" Zim greeted loudly.

The teen crossed his arms in front of his chest, chin tilted downwards. He was silent at first, then mumbled something that made Zim's antennae twitch underneath of the old Elvis-styled wig he wore.

"I'm sorry."

Silence.

Zim didn't know what was going on in that moment. He wasn't even sure if this was real or some malfunctioning. Why was his nemesis apologizing? What did he have to apologize about? Glancing at Gaz from the corner of his eye, Zim noticed she had tensed up but remained silent. As if ready to hit either Zim or her brother at any second.

"For- um…harassing you over the years. I shouldn't have accused you of being an alien and I really shouldn't have broken into your house…more than once."

Was this real? Zim didn't know. All he could do was watch and listen to what the human was saying. He noticed Dib's body language was very conserved and he was talking quietly under his breath, as if embarrassed or even guilty.

Zim tried to think of possible things to say, since it was obvious Dib was waiting a response.

If Dib was serious, Zim could tell Dib that he isn't an alien and accept his apology. He wouldn't have an enemy, no one to get in the way of his brilliant evil schemes. He could finally take over the world and impress his leaders even further.

At the same time though, he wanted to continue the game of cat and mouse. He wanted to have that adrenaline rush. He wanted to feel the fight, the words of venom, and that rush of the chase. He wanted those space battles to continue, or the battles of volleyball in the gymnasium. Kicking, biting, punching…what would life be without it?

"Uh…" the alien started, "Yeah…sure, I forgive you."

Even with the apology, Dib still didn't seem so hopeful.

Membrane put his arm around his son's shoulders, signaling it was time to leave. Gaz went first, leading them out of the building.

Dib gave Zim one last glance before following his sister and his father out of the school.

Zim watched, gloved hands folding in front of him with all nervousness.

" _There is definitely something problematic going on."_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Normally Zim would mind the disgusting smell and not to mention the greasy feel of pizza, but right now his plan seemed to be working well, so he wasn't going to complain.

"Okay, GIR. The security system is down. Now, help me into the second story window."

But GIR seemed to move his attention at the fact he had eaten all of the meat off of his slice of pizza. "Aww…my pepperonis."

"GIR!"

"Yes, my lord!"

* * *

Sitting on your robot's back and holding onto it's fake doggy ears while being lifted up by the jet packs seemed easy enough. However, even though Zim didn't grow quite that much, it was still hard for him to properly hold onto GIR and found himself going from sitting on the robot's back to falling backwards, clinging onto it's head for dear life, trying not to look down.

Noticeably, GIR was having some trouble holding the invader up and worse trying to get him to a high window. Perhaps all that pizza in his metal belly was weighing him down. Perhaps Zim was just heavy.

"We're almost there, GIR." At this point GIR had started to pant and something began growling deep inside him. One glance at that last piece of pizza in the greasy Bloaty's box, and he was making all kinds of noises, completely forgetting all about his master and focusing on the food beneath him. Zim felt GIR slowing down and knew what was going on as soon as he saw that disgusting box. "GIR…GIR, no-!"

GIR paid no mind to the demand he was given. Tired and worn, his attention was now solely on the piece of pizza below him and he dived down head first, his master letting out a yell and a grunt as they both collided with the ground. GIR had managed to bury himself a large ditch, while Zim was harshly thrown against the voot cruiser. "Nngh!" he grunted, head colliding into the hard metal and then landing upside down against the voot.

He managed to open one trembling eye and saw GIR licking away at that damned slice of pizza. All he could do was frown disapprovingly.

* * *

The extraterrestrial silently made his way up the stairs. Never having seen the upstairs of Dib's house, he was surprised to see not two, not three, but SIX doors lining the hallway. His jaw dropped and his eyes filled with hopelessness for a split second before realizing the first door to his left had a large "KEEP OUT" sign taped to the door, a dead rabbit had been scribbled on below the words.

That was definitely Gaz's room. She always had a thing for bunnies and pigs.

It seemed like Dib's room was at the last right. He could tell by the fact the door was a darker color than the other ones.

Zim thought of several different ways he could do this. He could try to sneak his way passed the room as quietly as possible, or he could make a dash for it. He could also use his PAK legs to walk him over to the human's door. Perhaps he could play it casually and simply walk by Gaz's door, hoping she would think it was Dib passing by if she was woken.

Or he could hit Gaz with a tool and hope that she stays unconscious.

No, casual walking seemed to be the better champion.

Taking all precautions, Zim began marching passed Gaz's room. He wasn't sure how loud the Dib's footsteps would be, but he knew he definitely had to have been louder than Zim and even though the floor was squeaky in some spots, Zim tried to ignore them the best he could. He couldn't show any resistance or it would blow his cover more so than a creaky floor. He had to act like he was a tired, half asleep human, coming back upstairs from the refrigerator. Foolish Earthlings couldn't even go 8 hours without some sort of food or drink. They were definitely the weaker species.

His casual walk had worked, footsteps becoming quieter as he got closer to the other human's door. He raised his eyes to the door of which was painted a dark blue. What got him was the closer look on the leftover tape. It seemed like whatever was on the door at one point had been carelessly ripped off. There were still pieces of paper left over. One of which was a corner piece that had the word "REAL" in large yellow letters.

Even the doorknob was missing, but it didn't seem to be an issue since the door was cracked open. It certainly made sneaking easier for Zim.

The first thing Zim noticed was the bare walls with nothing but leftover tape and paper. Next he noticed the bed which was pushed against the only window in the room, the walls above it habiting some tape. The bed itself holding only a thin dark blue bed sheet and matching pillow. The sleeping human laid on his back in plaid pajama pants and an old tee shirt with the words "NEURO" across it the fabric.

Neuro? Wasn't that another word for the brain?

It didn't seem to matter much to Zim about what it meant. That wasn't the information he was set on finding.

If it wasn't for the moonlight being the only light source of the room, he may not have noticed the large shapes standing in one corner of the room. BIG shapes covered with, what looked to be, a bed sheet. No, multiple bed sheets at that.

The room was so small it only habited the bed and the large bumpy figures. There was a door but that had to just be a closet. Zim wasn't really interested in what the human's clothes looked like.

He approached the figures, turned around and checking on the sleeping human before grabbing the light sheets and ripping them away. Zim could feel his antennae twitch at the sight of what was under the sheets. Tons and tons of monitors! In fact, he couldn't help but count them.

1…2…3…8…12…16…20…

There were 23 monitors in total. Two expensive, advanced looking laptops and monitors that seemed to be held up by several large hooks. The monitors looked like they haven't been used in forever. Along with the tangled wires, the monitors were collecting dust.

Some of the monitors were cracked, some of them had a gaping hole as if someone threw a baseball at them. The disc drives were collected in spider webs. Not to mention that there was nothing to go with them. No discs, no tapes, no notes? He knew Dib had to have at least something since Zim found security cameras in his base not too long ago. The question was; where did he have them hidden?

On top of that, did these computers even work?

A touch of the dusty computer mouse and one, very small, very old computer monitor lit up in Zim's face. It was so bright that Zim had to check to make sure the light didn't wake the owner up. The first thing that showed up was a desktop screen made complete with a silly UFO graphic design as the background. There were a few icons on the desktop itself that Zim didn't understand since he mostly used a school computer, but he knew how to get to the folders the held the documents. Thank you skool for teaching Zim about how to open a document.

Folders had been precisely organized. Starting from _Different Alien Species_ to _Zim's Base._ It really was amazing to see just how involved the human was in their rivalry. In fact, it seemed Dib was more involved than Zim was.

But he wasn't looking for what sort of notes Dib had on Zim's amazing SIR unit, he needed to find something that would be labeled as family. Family…something. Something, anything, that would involve the past four years of Dib's life. The folder labeled _Family History._ That had to have something.

Zim wasn't expecting the folder to have only four folders within it. Family meant 'ants' and those weird smelly wrinkly humans who always smelled like a Bob Evans. They were called grand-candies, correct?

But there were only four folders.

 _Patrick Membrane  
Gazelle Membrane  
Dibson Membrane  
Eva Membrane_

Zim wanted to question the list of names that popped up. Gazelle didn't even sound like it would be Gaz's name. In fact, he was certain he had heard her teachers call her by her full name at certain times and Gazelle was not it. Patrick- most likely Professor Membrane. Dibson…

The name that stuck out the most was the one on the bottom of the list, and Zim swore he had heard it spoken many times before. The name wasn't spoken of daily, and if it was to leave anyone's lips, it was usually no more than a whisper and the conversation usually wasn't any longer than a minute.

He wasn't sure where that name came from. As much as Zim tried to remember where he had heard it, he couldn't put his prehensile tongue on it. Was it even important?

He seemed to forget all about it as soon as he clicked on Dib's document. He was greeted with a picture of a small human Dib. Very small, wearing a pair of overalls that were too big for him and sucking on a pacifier. Notes were under the photo.

 _Dibson Membrane  
June 25, 1996_

 _"Dear my sweet baby boy,_

 _As I write this I am sitting in the nursery enjoying my tea, you are cooing softly in the crib your father made you. You sure have lots to say…or are you singing me a song? Who do you see when you look at me? Heehee, 'mama', and you say it so well too. You will never remember when you first said that word, loud and proud. You won't remember taking your first steps, or when you were so greedy over a bottle of baby formula. With everything you will forget, don't ever forget the stories._

 _I love you, sweet baby. –Mama."_

Ugh, gag. How disgusting.

Out of everything, Zim wasn't ever expecting he was going to break into Dib's personal files and read a mushy note from his dead mother. He wasted no time in scrolling to the bottom of the page. If cheesy letters were all he would find then this would all be a complete waste of time.

Hello…what was this? It seemed there was one folder in the bottom right hand corner. It was labeled _Medical History_. This had to have some clue as to what was going on. After all, fainting involved the human medicine, correct?

Zim wasn't sure what was going to pop up, but wasn't expecting long paragraphs of notes from separate psyche hospitals. The first one being _The Crazy House For Boys_ , but the others are ones Zim has never heard of. They dated back to early 2006.

 _Brook Path:_

 _Patient#: 91518000  
Patient Name: Dibson Membrane  
Birth Date: 6/25/96  
Treatment for Delusions, Insanity  
Sign in Date: 2/29/06_

 _Patient has been emitted twice before at The Crazy House For Boys, however due to constant relapsing, he has been brought here to Brook Path last night at 9:12pm with minor injuries such as bruising and scratches. Patient claims the marks were given to him by an extraterrestrial that goes to his school. His injuries were taken care of, we think his delusions caused him to self harm without the patient knowing. Patient will be under heavy surveillance and medicated daily._

 _3/19/06_

 _Patient has shown no improvement within the month he has been here. In fact, he seems to get more and more upset about the situation. He has done nothing but scare the patients and refuse to go to group therapy sessions. He will leave tomorrow and transfer to a different psyche hospital within the next week. We hope he will be stable enough to make it through a week of school._

The rest of the notes were the same. They were all from different treatment facilities, but their notes remained very similar, if not, the same. There was a different list of medications and treatments. Perhaps Zim had found what he was looking for. However, not from these notes. He would have to find notes dated back from four years ago.

It seemed like forever before he found the notes for the right dates. Endless counts of switching positions in the spin chair to shaking his sore wrist, the Irken wanted nothing more than to give up everything and go back to his base. His head still hurt from the impact with the voot. Besides, he had snacks back at the base.

He was almost to the bottom of the whole page, when he saw the 2011 date and his antennae twitched. _Finally!_

 _6/2/11_

 _Patient arrived at institution at 4am. Patient was escorted by police having breaking and entering an elder's house while heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Police figured the patient was too unstable to take to prison._

 _Patient has sobered up and believes the foreign child at his school is an alien. He claims he [the alien] has almost taken over the world many times before. He claims the child wears a mediocre disguise and has antennae and bug-like eyes._

 _Patient will be treated for delusional schizophrenia and severe depression._

 _6/25/11_

 _Patient had his birthday today. Surprisingly enough, he did not receive a visit from his father. However, his sister had come in with a cake. Patient seemed very happy to see his sibling after almost a month._

 _7/31/11_

 _Patient had come out of a month-long isolation. He will not speak to us, but he still vents about the 'alien' and is very upset that we left him in there. Perhaps we should run a few tests and make some changes to his food._

 _5/12/12_

 _AS THE PATIENT'S NEW NURSE, I WILL BE STUDYING HIM CLOSELY. I WILL ALSO BE MAKING ALL OF HIS FOOD. IN ORDER TO ENSURE HIS SAFETY, NO ONE ELSE IS GOING TO BE ALLOWED IN HIS ROOM OR TO GIVE HIM HIS FOOD. I WILL BE WITH HIM FROM THE TIME HE WAKES UP TO WHEN HE GOES TO SLEEP._

Zim sat in silence. Skimming over what he had just read over and over again. Police, alcohol, schizophrenia…

No wonder Dib was so different than what he was all those years ago. But was this Zim's fault? Did he do this to Dib's life?

Was Dib still drinking? Is that why he passed out during class? Was he drunk? Zim noticed the human smelled bad but that could have just been him in general.

The biggest question though. Who was the new nurse? Even the most dumbest of humans knew when to use caps and when not to. The nurse couldn't have been human. Irken is the only species in the galaxy that wrote in only caps. But Zim was the only Irken that knew of Earth, it was labeled as a secret planet and it was so far away from Irk that no one would even want to travel to this miserable planet.

Zim tried to wrap his mind around this, trying his hardest to think of another Irken that new of Earth.

His thoughts were interrupted by the clicking sound of something turning on, a bright spot light shined at the invader. Zim raised his hand in attempt to block the horrid bright light from his eyes, seeing Dib sitting up in bed with nothing but his wrinkled clothes and messy hair, pointing a bright flash light at Zim's face.

The alien's eyes widened and the human's look of curiosity turned to fear.

They sat in silence, staring at each other in the dark. Amber eyes dark behind black bangs, magenta eyes glowing in the darkness.

And then he screamed.

A most unearthly scream that sounded like that of a tortured youth. It didn't sound human, and it definitely didn't sound like any noise this particular human had made in the past. It was so high pitched, so scratchy, so… _inhuman_. Even though Zim had tried to muffle the sound with his hands in the place where his ears would be, it didn't seem to help at all.

Suddenly, the bedroom door was slammed open. Zim wasn't thankful, he knew who interrupted the screaming. The pajama-clad sister stood there with the angriest glare on her face.

"I'm going to kill you!" she yelled.

At this moment, Zim was trapped. He couldn't run out of the room and he couldn't go around her. Only hoping for the best he yelled for his side kick. "GIR! Bring the voot around! Hurry!"

It was at that moment that Gaz's eyes glowed, hair flying back and at the same time as a baseball bat suddenly appeared in her hand. Thankfully, at that same moment, the voot cruiser had appeared outside the window…the window that was blocked by Dib's bed and Zim really didn't want the human to scream again.

But while the scary sister charged at him with the bat, he had no other choice. Zim quickly jumped on the bed, being sure not to make eye contact with the human, and jumped into the cruiser. The window to the voot was shut and in no time at all the alien and the robot was gone.

Gaz set her bat aside and then shut her brother's window. "You're okay." She promised.

The elder, still shaken up, mumbled "I saw him again, Gaz…"

"I know. Look, I'll give you some melatonin and you can sleep in my room. Get a blanket and a pillow."

As if this wasn't the first time, Dib quietly got his blanket and his pillow and made his way to his sister's room. In the meantime, Gaz had gone downstairs and opened the corner cabinet which over flowed with different prescriptions and even some needles. It didn't seem to faze her as she started reading the labels to find the melatonin. She wondered if she should give him an atarax as well. Probably not since the melatonin would help him fall asleep.

What right did Zim have to break into their house and jump onto her brother's computer? It hasn't even been on for almost a year, she was surprised it still worked. On her way back to her room she made sure she stopped in her brother's and put the blankets back over the monitors. Not like she had to hide them anymore. She would definitely have to create a password for the main monitor now to make sure Zim didn't get on it again.

She peeked in her own room to see if Dib had already gone back to sleep, seeing as she didn't want to wake him again. Her brother was still wide awake and staring at her ceiling. Looking over as soon as Gaz entered with the prescription and a glass of water.

She crouched down beside him, emptying two pills into her hands and giving him the water. She had to watch him take the medicine after an event in the past. "Open." She commanded, nodding once when she saw he had swallowed them and then climbed into her bed, excited to go back to sleep and dream of whatever it was that scary sisters dreamt of. Just when she was about to get under the blankets she heard a mumble come from the floor. "What?" she asked.

"I said…did you see him?"

"Yeah." She responded "Stop asking stupid questions and go to sleep. It's bad enough you woke me up with your screaming."

"Right…"

Gaz would be lying if she said she didn't worry for her brother. She checked on him one last time, seeing that he was already asleep, not sure if it was from the medicine or the exhausting fright he had gotten. She wouldn't question though. As long as she could get some sleep herself.

But she couldn't. It seemed she never could anymore. She was always up having anxiety over the thought of something drastic happening to her brother. She always had past events in her mind, she always thought of what happened those nights her brother never came home, or when he did come home and he wouldn't even talk to her.

But the thing that kept her awake at night was the constant blame for her brother's unhappiness. She blamed herself for everything that happened in his life.

If only she had been a better sister.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 _"What do you see?"_

 _"A hallway full of monsters."_

 _"What do they look like?"_

 _"Disgusting bodies. Some are big some are little, but they all grin ear to ear- showing their ignorance to the ones in pain."_

 _"What do they do?"_

 _"They kill each other."_

 _"Wake up, Dib."  
_

* * *

School bells rang for the five minute warning before the start of the next class. The sound of lockers being slammed and the zipping of books bags filled the ears of the tall teen at his locker while he hurriedly put books into his locker and took out a pile of folders and binders. The last thing he wanted to do was be late. Actually, it looked like he would be on time today!

He was never one to have good luck. A larger senior passed by holding a doll of a girl by the waist, the exceptionally good looking older student glanced away from his accessory just enough to spot Dib then deciding to use his free arm to swipe the books out of the boy's hands, simply because he could. Papers, homework, and notes scattered all over the school hallway floor. The idiot laughed and the girl on his arm raised a hand to her giggling mouth, glancing over her shoulder at the scrawny teen with a sinister smirk, sharp fangs barely being seen behind delicate fingers.

Dib watch them walk away with dull eyes before scrambling onto the floor, long skinny arms reaching for whatever their hands could grab as many young adults passed by without a second thought. He was going to be late, he wouldn't have his homework, he hoped there was no test- he didn't look at his notes the previous night.

Sleep. He didn't sleep last night. He could feel himself burning calories trying to keep his eyes open. He was off and on all night. He would go to sleep then wake up, pass out after thirty minutes for ten and then repeat the cycle. His glasses were filthy from careless neglect, as if they hadn't been cleansed in months. The same round glasses recycled over the years even as his eyes changed from bright and alert to dark and almost lifeless.

So lost in his previous nightmares, he didn't notice the bigger male with messy brown hair kneel down to help him until a binder neatly filled with notes was thrust into his face. "Here." said the deep voice.

It was weird being helped when everyone in school hated your guts, especially if the person helping you was a very feared bully.

Torque Smackey roughly grabbed Dib's skinny limb then helped pull him to his feet before once again thrusting Dib's binder into his arms so fast that Dib almost dropped them again. Without waiting for any sort of reaction, the weight lifter turned away and continued to his way to his class leaving Dib confused and with a pile of school related work.

It happened so fast it was like the events were another form of wild imagination flashing in front of the teen's eyes.

If the events weren't real then why was he standing in an empty hall with his school supplies neatly put together in his hands?

* * *

"You are high schoolers!"

All they wanted was the lecture to be over, however their mentor was completely fueled by anger and coffee. The dark circles around her eyes and the pale complexion showed she was probably up all night grading failed test papers. "It is a _simple_ read. I don't care if you don't like the book- It was not assigned by me! it was assigned by the board, and I expect a lot more out of young adults!"

At this time a certain tall 'young adult' could be heard running from the hallway and seen coming in through the open classroom door, fixing his glasses that had come loose from his running to get to class at a decent time. As much as he wanted it, his appearance in the classroom did not go unnoticed by his teacher.

"Dib, you need to start arriving early to my class!" she snapped "I'm assuming you also didn't do your homework?"

"Uh-" Dib staled as he plopped himself into his assigned seat in the second row, opening his binder the quickest he could so as to not have to hear another loud lecture...even though he knew he never did it but still rummaged through his entire binder and then another to find the missing homework that he knew was not there. How could he have been so neglectful? He used to hand in every assignment on time and sometimes even a bit early. How he went to forgetting literally ever bit of homework assigned for just one night was beyond him.

The mid thirties teacher took a breath "This is exactly what I'm talking about! I'm starting to think you aren't taking your learning seriously and that's ridiculous!"

Dib had begun to mentally mock the angry teacher with eye rolling, having given up on looking for his 'homework' and watched as his english teacher became more and more upset over her students.

He would definitely have to start making reminders to do his homework when he gets home. His grades are really starting to shift negatively, something he really could not afford at this point. Within the past couple of weeks he had been told copies of his grades and lists of incomplete assignments would be emailed to his father. Maybe he could start doing his homework with his sister.

After a while of spacing out, Dib found it harder to keep his heavy eyes open as the yelling bouncing off the walls turned into fuzzy background noise. He found it harder than ever to keep his eyes watching the front of the room. He tried looking somewhere else. His pencil, his hands, anything he could focus on to keep his mind awake. He wished for nothing more than to be able to fall asleep at that moment.

Tired eyes focused themselves on the clock, taking in every little detail they could. How the little hand seemed to stay in the same place without even the simple care of moving. The big hand that seemed to twitch further to the number 4 as the skinny, barely noticeable arm moved ahead with each passing second. The tiny lines in between each number-

And then it happened. Everything froze. The students, the teacher, the leaves falling outside, the two squirrels sharing an acorn on the window ledge. It was as if time itself had simply stopped.

Amber eyes wandered around the room, curiously spotting the clock. Had it froze too?

No.

The clock had grown long black eyelashes connected to a pair of black eyes that seemed to bore themselves into Dib's soul. They were empty. The red arm had now curved into a sinister smile, dripping crimson red down the wall onto a chalkboard eraser, falling down the ends like a waterfall thus leaving a growing puddle on the floor- a puddle that seemed to grow and grow...until it was touching the black boot of the insane one.

Desperate eyes darted around the classroom, searching for the help of a classmate- anyone to wake him up, but he only saw dark figures floating in the air above invisible chairs with the faces of the clock.

And they were all facing him with empty eyes and sinister grins.

The yelling in the background had turned to unworldly screams he could not translate.

And just when he felt hard hands grabbing his shoulder was when everything stopped. Large eyes opened behind thick frames while his world was turned side ways. He had fallen asleep and was disoriented from that 20 second nightmare. Usually they lasted longer...he was lucky this time.

The room around him was empty with no feeling except for that one very large very rough hand touching him.

* * *

Lunch passed, and it seemed like forever until the school day had finished. While Dib retrieved his book bag from his locker all that was on his mind at that point was how amazing his bed is going to feel when he gets home. The promise of warm blankets and silence were the only thing keeping his dark eyes awake.

Gaz was probably waiting for him on the bus right now, if he didn't hurry there would surely be hell to pay.

As he closed his locker door he had the unnerving feeling like something was wrong- no, something was missing and for some reason Dib couldn't help but feel a weight on his chest. That weight seemed to only become heavier when he turned and saw the school bully standing directly behind him.

"Better?" Torque asked the other, one arm holding the strap on his book bag and the other being used to munch on a protein bar.

Dib was silent at first, not knowing what to say. What could he say? After the scene in the hallway and the incident in the classroom he wasn't sure what to expect.

 _"Hey, wake up. Class is over."_

Dib hit him.

"Me?" Dib asked, feeling stupid.

"Yeah." The bully replied, that same lazy glare he had carried form elementary school suited him more now that he was grown. "You freaked out."

"Uh...yeah, sorry."

Torque's glare hardened as Dib was trying to figure out a way to explain himself without sounding totally crazy. The more Torque stared at him, the more it almost seemed as if he was reading Dib for any signs of lying or simply wanting to know why Dib had dared touch him in the first place.

"You're going to miss your bus." He mumbled, shoving the rest of the nutty protein bar into his mouth then turning and heading for the school gym without another word.

He didn't have much to say so perhaps Dib was overreacting just as he did all those years ago. He would definitely have to learn how to grow out of that awful habit.

* * *

"Maybe if you slept in your own bed you'd get more sleep." The sister grumbled just as the bus took off for it's next stop. The older sibling mentally rolled his eyes, knowing if he were to do it physically towards her he would certainly not live long.

They walked in silence just as they always did. Dib with his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt and Gaz's hands folded over her stomach, fingers intwined in themselves. It was beginning to get chilly signaling the end to summer and the beginning of autumn.

Gaz liked autumn, she liked the smell of the air and the crunchy sounds the dead leaves made when she stomped on them. She didn't like winter. All winter had to offer was icy sidewalks and frost bitten noses, icy temperatures below 10 degrees, and winter chores such as shoveling the driveway. Dib wasn't too happy about winter either.

They used to love winter. When their mom was alive they would go outside and make snowmen and throw snowballs at each other. Now they stayed inside, complained about how cold the house is, and stole each other's fleece blankets claiming them to be their own.

Sometimes they wondered how their lives would have been if they still had her back. Gaz would never take her bedtime stories for granted ever again.

The Membrane children stepped onto the house's porch. While Gaz stomped on some fire ants, Dib simply stared at the door spacing out a little bit...okay, a lot. Mind blank and clouded with exhaustion, he imagined his warm bed yet again. Snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his sister's voice. "What?"

"The keys." Dib looked confused and she frowned. "Don't tell me you forgot the keys."

Oh.

Gaz's frown turned into one of annoyance "You've gotta be joking!"

"I thought you had them."

"No, Dib! I told you to get them right before we left the house!"

"You definitely had them."

No, she didn't.

Gaz grit her teeth while shaking with anger. Her brother was too spacey sometimes. How does someone just forget to grab the keys to their house when no one else is ever home? "Got any brilliant ideas?" It wasn't a question, more so another demand. She looked at her brother expectedly, who looked at her with a blank stare.

After getting each other's book bags over the backyard fence, and lifting each other over the fence, Gaz retrieved the spare key hiding under a rock behind a patch of daffodils to unlock the back door, mumbling something about "stupid brother" and "gonna kill him someday" as she turned the key to the back door.

Once inside the quiet house the first thing the two teens did was lazily drop their bags and sweatshirts off at the dining room table. The siblings breathed in the familiar scents of their house. Candles such as 'Autumn Leaves' and 'Fresh Woods' gave the house a warm welcoming feeling even when the only thing heard was the creaking of the house against the rough fall wind.

Dib headed for the living room, collapsing face first onto the couch as Gaz headed upstairs. The last thing Dib heard was Gaz mumbling "I'm going to my room. My head hurts."

And then it was quiet.

* * *

 _Darkness. That is all he saw._

 _His feet could feel the flat carpet beneath them, pale hands brushing against skinny arms, flowing hospital gown being kicked with each step._

 _And that smell_

 _The smell of cleaning materials and dead pigs. The room had always smelled like that, it was as if naughty patients were brought there to be slaughtered and hung without a trace of blood or sound. After all, the room was completely sound proof. Dib associated everything with the one of his biggest fears. Solitude. Being helplessly alone, isolated form all senses except for fear. What scared him most was that he could scream and call for help as much as his lungs were allow, but no one would ever hear him._

 _Hands fell on the hard wall directly behind the patient. Hopeless eyes darted around the empty space, falling on the little bit of light emitting from a door held open slightly by a shadow in the form of another human, however Dib saw the shadow of a monster that wanted to harm him. The monster would lock him in this room with no light, no noise, no sense of touch except for the hardness of the rough floors and walls. Perhaps he could feel pain if he banged his body against them like he did before._

 _The voice of the monster turned to growls and mutters of an entirely new language Dib was sure he had never heard, it seemed very unworldly, it didn't belong._

 _Dib was alert as he took one step towards the door. Two...three... just as Dib was about to make a dash for freedom, the door slowly began to creak shut with all of the light disappearing with it. Dib's eyes widened and he still attempting the dash, hands of a child reached out to catch the door before the light disappeared. He didn't want to see darkness again, he wanted out, he wanted to see the sun and feel the warmth of Earth's sun. He wanted to go back to school and to see his sister and he wanted to sit at his seat in Ms. Bitters' room and hear her complain about the school, the teachers, the students..._

 _Just as he thought he was going to make it, the door slammed shut in the child's broken face. "No...!" he called. Dib banged his small fists against the door, hopelessly jiggled the door knob, screaming for help never worked...so why was he still hoping it would? "Let me out! Don't leave me here!" With one last jiggle on the door knob, the 13 year old's body sunk to the floor finally giving up._

 _Skinny arms hugged the trembling person providing him even more loneliness than a cold dark room could ever hand him and for the first time in years, the human had begun to sob quietly, he didn't want anyone to hear him cry._

 _"YoU PoOr thInG..."_

 _Then he heard the voice, the same voice he always heard when he was trapped in that cursed room. It was dark, demonic, it sounded like something straight from hell. He began repeating the word "No" to himself, trying to focus on his own voice other than the voice of Satan himself._

 _However, that voice didn't sound at all unique. It sounded like a copy. An evil version of something that was once sweet._

 _"WhErE Is YOuR mOtHEr?" it taunted "YoUr SiStEr? YoUr FatHeR?"_

 _"No..." He responded to the voice, trying to sound tough but instead sounding like a helpless little boy. "I've had enough of you."_

 _"I CaN HeLp yoU."_

 _"No."_

 _"YoU CaN heLp Us."_

 _"I said_ no _!"_

 _Bzzz bzzz_

The sound of his phone vibrating against the coffee table brought Dib out of his horrible nap. It was dark outside, but it felt like he had just closed his eyes and opened them again. Sitting up he took his phone and saw a notification from Buttbook. Of course he was curious as to who would be stupid enough to send him a message. He swiped his finger over the screen of his smartphone then opened his social app's messages.

 _Torque Smackey: Hey._

 _Torque Smackey: I know you're there._

Right...he could see the notification that Dib had seen the message. Of course Torque was mad, after all Dib had swung on him in the classroom. He obviously wanted some kind of revenge. Of course he was angry beyond words, but Dib still couldn't figure out how to respond. _'I know you're there'_ didn't sound friendly, but then again it didn't sound bad. It was Torque though, that had to have meant bad news. Even though Dib was taller he still wouldn't be able to win a fight against anyone, especially a muscle builder like Torque Smackey.

That was his only fear- having to fight.

He decided it would be best to not ignore the school bully. Maybe they could work things out or maybe Torque would beat Dib into the next decade. Either way, it was just best to get it over with seeing as how he would have to face up to this sometime sooner or later.

 _Dib Membrane: What do you want?_

 _Torque Smackey: You know you don't have to take that from those people._

 _Torque Smackey: You have the choice to stand up to them._

Dib didn't know how to respond, this definitely wasn't the response he planned to get from the other especially after what had happened at school earlier that day. Dib tried to find something to say, but he obviously didn't respond fast enough before his phone was buzzing wildly as messages flew in all at once.

 _Torque Smackey: You don't have to take their bull shit. You don't deserve it._

 _Torque Smackey: You're a nice guy who just wants to be alone and I get that but I don't get how you can just get walked over and not have some sort of reaction._

 _Torque Smackey: Why do you do that?_

He expected so many things, so many horrible things to happen but confrontational questioning from someone so intimidated by everyone in town wasn't even on the bottom of the list of things he was expecting. There were so many ways he could respond but he feared saying something dumb. He was always awkward when it came to social situations.

 _Dib Membrane: Why do you care?_

 _Torque Smackey: Do you really believe what people say? I thought you'd be smarter than that._

Believe what people say...

About what? About how crazy he was? How insane and how much of a freak he is? How he should give up on all his plans in life because nobody wants a crazy working for them?

Yes, he could have told Torque to leave him alone, but there was a weird feeling inside of his stomach like Torque's comment wasn't necessarily directed towards him.

He also didn't want anyone to know.

 _Dib Membrane: I think you should stay away from me._

 _Torque Smackey: I get it._

 _Torque Smackey: If you're having a bad day just text me. 555-555-0099_

 _*Torque has logged off*_

Dib thanked that little bit of luck he had with the extremely short conversation. Although it wasn't much, it was enough for Dib to feel relieved that it went as well as it had, the adrenaline was still there but he was relieved. He allowed himself to settle down before making his way upstairs to his room, making sure to be as quiet as he could so he wouldn't wake up his little sister. Her head aches could get pretty bad.

Opening his door to his mostly emptied room, his mind went back to the posters that used to cover every inch of his wall space. He remembered collecting every one of those covered monitors from dumpsters and fixing them back up so he could...

At that point he had shaken the thoughts out of his head, focusing more on closing his bedroom window so he wouldn't get bugs. not that it mattered, he really didn't bring anything into his room that would attract bugs but if one flied through his window it would be a pain having to catch and release it when all he wanted to do was collapse on his mattress and sleep.

But after the visions he had he knew he wouldn't be sleeping at all tonight.

Yet somehow as he plopped down on his bed and looked around his dimly lit room, he felt strange. It was a type of strange that he had never felt before. Perhaps it was the warm blanket he had draped around his shoulders, or the fact the lighter on his night stand was cold.

Perhaps it was because a certain green skinned boy was nowhere to be seen.


End file.
